Sochi's opening show: Let Putin's games begin

Friday, February 7, 2014 | 6:00 a.m. CST

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, right, hands over the Olympic torch to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the torch relay arrives in Sochi, Russia, on Thursday before the 2014 Winter Olympics.¦ Shamil Zhumatov/The Associated Press

BY
ANGELA CHARLTON/The Associated Press

SOCHI, Russia — They're designed to celebrate a millennium of Russian might and this country's modern rebound, and kick off two weeks of extraordinary human endeavors and planetary sportsmanship. But the ceremony opening the Sochi Olympics on Friday, more than anything, will be about one man: Vladimir Putin.

He charmed and strong-armed his way to hosting the games at a summer beach resort that he envisioned as a winter paradise. He stared down terrorist threats and worldwide wrath at a scarcely veiled campaign against gays. He has shrugged off critiques that construction of the most costly games in Olympic history was both shoddy and corrupt.

Ballet, man-made snow and avant-garde art will make an appearance at Sochi's opening ceremonies, though as with all past opening ceremonies, the details are under wraps. They can't really compete with the cinematic splendor of the London Olympics or the pyrotechnic extravaganza of Beijing, but then again, the Winter Games are usually more low-key.

No matter. All Putin needs is an event that tells the world "Russia is back."

It's a message meant for millions around the world who will watch the show — and one for his countrymen, too.

Russians will form the bulk of the spectators in Sochi for the Olympics, a people whose forebears endured centuries of oppression, a revolution that changed the world, a Soviet experiment that built rockets and nuclear missiles but struggled to feed its people. Russians who sometimes embrace Putin's heavy hand because they fear uncertainty more than they crave freedom, and who, despite inhabiting the largest country in the world, feel insecure about their place in it.

They're pinning especially high hopes on their athletes, once a force to be reckoned with and the pride of the nation. They were a national embarrassment at the Vancouver Games in 2010, with just three gold medals and a string of doping busts.

"This ceremony can only help motivate our guys," said Russian bobsled coach Oleg Sokolov. "You have to visit this kind of event, especially when the whole stadium is cheering for you."

This year, Russia has cleaned up its game and is presenting hundreds of skaters, skiers and other champions in the arenas on Sochi's seashore and in the nearby Caucasus Mountains slopes of Krasnaya Polyana.

While the United States, Norway and Germany are seen as leading medal contenders, Russia will be pushing hard to bring home a bundle for the home crowd. Putin put on the pressure even as he tried to motivate them this week: "We are all counting on you."

The world will be watching the entire Olympic machine in Sochi, and using what it sees to sit in judgment of Putin's Russia, where he has suffocated political opposition and ruled overtly or covertly for 15 years.

Is it a has-been superpower that can't keep the electricity on during a hockey game? Or a driver of the 21st century global economy? A diplomatic middleweight with ties to despots that wields influence only via its veto at the United Nations? Or a fairy tale of prosperous resurrection from the communist collapse and its brutal aftermath?

Who sits next to Putin on the VIP balcony might provide some clue. President Barack Obama and some other Western leaders are staying away, upset at a law that he championed barring homosexual "propaganda" aimed at minors that has been used to more widely discriminate against gays.

The opening ceremonies will gloss over the ugly bits as they hand over the games to the men and women who will spend the next two weeks challenging records and the limits of human ability.

Princess Anne of Britain, who competed in equestrian at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, says the ceremonies should remind the world the athletes "are committing themselves to the Olympic ideal" — not just be a big party.

Some 6,000 athletes and team members, a record for the Winter Olympics, will come for 98 events, including the new slopestyle extreme skiing competition that began Thursday. More women will compete than ever before.

Among Americans, Shaun White is skipping slopestyle to focus on winning a third-straight snowboarding gold in halfpipe. Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner will try to out-skate South Korea's Yuna Kim.

The pros of the NHL won't arrive until Monday, taking a special break in their season to hop on charter flights to Sochi and splitting off to compete against each other on behalf of their homelands.

The last thing anyone wants to think about as Sochi opens the Olympics is terrorism, but it won't be far from anyone's mind.

A few hundred miles away lies Chechnya, the site of two wars in the past two decades. And Dagestan, childhood home to the two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings and where militants regularly mount attacks. And Volgograd, where two suicide bombs killed 34 people in December.

A decade ago, extremists hid a bomb in a stadium in Chechnya during construction. At its grand opening, the bomb exploded, killing the Kremlin-backed Chechen president.

Fear of an attack on the Sochi Games has fueled Putin's strict security agenda and brought U.S. warships to the region. About Russian 40,000 security forces are on guard, standing watch in all corners of Sochi and its Olympic Park on the sea and built-from-scratch mountain ski resort.

Legions of small business owners, political leaders and residents of this region are also hoping things stay safe — and hoping that Putin wins his gamble the games will turn Sochi into a year-round resort zone. Glitches with not-quite-ready hotels and a run of last-minute construction have already seeded doubts.

While London's Olympics celebrated little-known young athletes chosen to light the Olympic torch, the Sochi Games may celebrate experience instead.

Six-time Olympian Todd Lodwick, competing in the Nordic combined, will bear the U.S. team's flag at the opening ceremonies. Russia chose bobsledder Alexander Zubkov, a 39-year-old heading into his fifth Olympics to carry its flag through the Fisht Stadium at the opening event.

Who will light the Olympic cauldron? Russian hockey great Vladislav Tretiak — among the best to ever play the game — has said he'll take part, and some speculate he'll be Putin's choice for the high honor of the opening ceremony.

It may be too much for Putin to hope that three hours of an opening ceremony will reshape his global image. But in a country that embraces superlatives and spectacle and set a world standard for classical dance, he can count on them to provide a good show.